Pi in the Sky

Ico

Posted on December 3rd, 2007 at 9:24pm by Pi.
Categories: Gaming.

Ico is a PlayStation 2 game developed and released in 2001 by Sony, specifically by International Production Studio 1. It was one of the first games developed for PS2 by the maker, and one of the few re-released games they have. Ico is an action-adventure game, with emphasis in exploration and ambient.

Ico is a small boy born with horns, left in a huge castle as sacrifice, and escaping from dead by accident. While exploring the abandoned castle, Ico finds a strange young girl called Yorda. Ico protects Yorda from the dark figures which attack her, while trying to escape out of the castle with some help from the princess.

The mood of the game is dark, obscure, oppresive and even scary. The visuals are pretty unique, adding up to the atmosphere of the environment. Everything in the game is quite minimalistic, although it’s detailed where it needs to be. The music is almost unexistant except in some cutscenes. Most of what you hear are ambient sounds or single long notes which can’t be barely called melodies. However the soundtrack of this game is really good if you’re into moody music; unfortunately the soundtrack is not too long (released as Ico: Melody In The Mist.)

The point of the game reminds pretty much of the first good exploration platformers like Prince Of Persia and Flashback. Ico will have to find levers, climb ladders and chains, break furniture, place bombs, make incredible jumps, solve puzzles, discover which parts of the environment can react, etc. That’s while dragging Yorda by the hand and fighting about the strange enemies.

The game has very few characters, even if you count enemies as characters. They’re shadow figures, apparently made of black smoke, with two very bright eyes which fade away when they’re dead. They appear from dark holes from the ground, where they try to drag Yorda if you don’t defend her properly. However, you can drag Yorda out of the holes if she’s still halfway in.

Yorda reacts to some stuff in the castle, and can be of much help in certain situations. She can even point you to strange things if you seem to be lost and don’t know how to continue. Yorda is not very good company as Ico doesn’t understand what she says, and she’s always in the verge of trouble, but Ico will not leave her behind. Yorda is very useful if you know how she can be useful. She will do large jumps and follow Ico pretty much everywhere (as long as Ico helps her), but there are things she can’t do like Ico.

Actually I wouldn’t want to keep talking about how to play the game. Ico is minimalistic even in the plot. The less you know, the more you will enjoy the game each time you discover a new thing. I didn’t even know that Yorda existed the first time I played Ico, and it was a great surprise advancing in the game while making these discoveries.

A big part of the greatness of this game is its simplicity. There are no life points, no large inventories, no huge lists of items to try. Although you can use a weapon, you can only carry one and there aren’t many to choose anyway. There’s nothing in the screen except Ico, Yorda, and the environment.

The game isn’t easy just because it looks simple. The puzzles you have to solve to advance and go to the next room while protecting Yorda are increasingly hard, and not always obvious. While the shadow enemies are easy at first, they get stronger, smarter and in bigger packs later. Thankfully this small action side is not too hard to handle. The main point is the puzzle solving, platform moving and jumping, exploring and interacting with the environment.

The environment is the other great part. I’ve already talked about the ambient of this game, but you’ll not understand it until you are in a darkly lit room with the dome 100 meters over your head. When I said that the castle is huge, I mean it. A fully featured 3D environment you can explore, but not clogged up with unnecessary details to make you feel lost. It doesn’t hold up next to a game made this year, but if you consider it was one of the first PS2 games and that it’s six years old, it is pretty good.

Although a game like this doesn’t seem to have a very high replayability value, it seems to be fun to be replayed. It’s pretty much like a horror movie, but you get to do the things. Moreover, the second time you play the game you can control Yorda with another gamepad, you can understand the strange language, you can play with “film-effect”, and more bonuses.

If you’ve seen Shadow Of The Colossus, Ico looks and feel the same way. Shadow Of The Colossus is considered to be the spiritual sucessor to Ico, although the games have no immediate plot connections, and SotC has even less characters than Ico. However, both share the same atmosphere, and they have been designed and developed by the same game studio. Fumito Ueda, the designer behind both games, has confirmed that they happen in the same universe, and that SotC is some kind of prequel to Ico. This could mean that another game is going to be released from the same studio, which is great news.

Ico has been re-released past year, and received many awards in its release year. It is widely considered as a cult classic and a very strong influence in other 3D exploration platformers. Besides the official soundtrack, there’s even a novelization, although I think it has only been released in Japan and not edited in other countries or languages.

I’ve played a large part of Ico by now, and I must say that I’m so impressed by this game that I think it’s becoming one of my favorites. Last time a game was so creepy and moody for me was probably the first Alone In The Dark, or maybe Quake. There’s little to nothing negative to say about this game. I firmly recommend it to everyone who has a PS2 as a must have game for your shelves. A 10/10 undoubtly.

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